Bombsquad’s Breakdown (D2) – Week 12

After all the upsets and turmoil in round one of the playoffs, the world has righted itself and we are left with both the 1st and 2nd seed’s in both conferences. For most, it was a cake walk but for some the road was rocky.

Will Paul Lapierre’s thumb heal — or at least function in time for the Ruff Ryders’ conference final against the G-Men? We shall soon see. Let us take a peek at the tale of yester-weekend and then preview the next round.

Countdown to Detonation.

4. The Gold Standard neuter the Wolfpack 50-30. Jay Ulley repeats his 7 TD performance against the Wolfpack and Scott Mironowicz even got in on the action tossing one himself. The Standard showed they have multiple threats on offense as the leading receiver was Kyle Smith with 6 catches for 117 yards and 3 touchdowns. The same Smith who had only two TDs in six regular season games. Seven different receivers caught balls for Ulley. As for the Wolfpack, they just came up short this week. A couple of stops from the Gold Standard and one interception proved to be the difference in the matchup. Mikail Davidson had another big day for the Pack, scoring 3 times on 4 catches, but the rest of the offence was well contained as Pascal Murray only had 10 completions. A return to the finals was not meant to be this season.

3. One Night Stands abuse the All Blacks and don’t even give them cab fare home as they win 27-19. Chris Bridgeman was able to run on O.N.S., but unfortunately he was only able to throw for 106 yards and 3 TD’s. The bigger problem? You will never win a playoff game with more interceptions than TD’s as Bridgeman turned the ball over 4 times. I said last week that I believed the experience of the O.N.S. defence would be the difference and it was. More importantly the offence wasn’t the best for the One Nighters but it was efficient enough as Craig O’Brien made sure not to turn the ball over in his modest performance. The game unfolded the way I believed it would and now the tougher match is upon them.

2. The Ruff Ryders inch out a victory against a determined Wolverine team, 28-25. In a game that was back and forth and had the Wolverines within three plays of victory (As stated by Adrien Kellman during the game with three plays left), the Ruff Ryders showed why they were the 1st seed in the playoffs by overcoming adversity with Paul Lapierre leading his team to victory after dislocating his thumb — again. Tony Tabet, just like Corey Greenaway did a few weeks back, exposed the weakness of the Ryders defence, which is a scrambling quarterback. Throughout the game, Tabet would find ways to buy time. But once they got close to the red zone, the Ryder’s defence buckled down — and hard. The Wolverines had almost 10 plays in the redzone to salt away the game. The combination of rushing by Brandon Pierre and big play defence of the Ryders held the Wolverines down and bought them a last shot at victory, which culminated in a back-corner TD to Rochdi Benabdelkader. This was the best game of the weekend by far in division two, if not all of FlagPlus– but that D1 loss by MTL Finest was close in the running.

1. The G-Men come out on top of the Triple Sixers, in style, beating them 40-28. Gianni Settino is catching fire at the right time as he had only 3 incompletions and threw for 240 yards, 6 TD’s and no INT’s. A very good performance, as he used Paul Kamel and Nathan Taylor early and often, who accounted for five of those passing TD’s. As for the Sixers, the Jerome and Marcotte show has ended its long run and is packed away for the winter. Both gave their best as they combined for 12 receptions and 2 TDs (both by Jerome). Karim Chaoual gave his best as well, as he threw for 235 yards but in the end it was not meant to be on this day. It was a valiant effort but the G-Men were just too strong.

BOOM! Like the bus at the end of Speed…..woe.

In a big playoff match like the O.N.S. had against the All Blacks, my SHOWSTOPPA is Ryan Brewster, whose 2 picks and 5 tackles were pivotal and made when his team needed him most. Great job!

As for my Golden Boy, for the second time this year, I am giving the title to Paul Lapierre who once again led his team to victory with a DISLOCATED THUMB on his throwing hand! It was so swollen; I swear I could see his pulse on it like Fred Flintstone! Great game Paulie.

Picks? Who would like some picks? Fine, well you’re getting them anyway.

Conference A.

The Gold Standard take on the One Night Stands for the right to play for the championship. The first time these two teams met was back in week one and O.N.S. lost badly, 26-0. This, however, was a team which was lacking chemistry and cohesiveness earlier on in the year. Now enter the playoffs and both teams are firing on all cylinders. This will be a great match. The One Nighters will need to find a way to score on a very strong Standard defence. At the same time, they will need to hold down a very potent Standard offence. Unfortunately, I do not believe they can do both. I believe the Gold Standard are peaking at the right time and have found the creativeness on offence with that three-headed monster, led by Ulley to do what needs to be done to make the finals. So I believe the Gold Standard will win this weekend.

The Ruff Ryders take on the G-Men. This is what flag is all about. These two teams are stacked. I won’t name names because I don’t have to. Everyone knows the players on both sides in this match. In the only meeting of the season, the Ryders won 26-20, but the G-Men were missing both Taylor brothers. They can make a huge difference as we all know. But Gianni Settino had a difficult time against this Ryder defence. Maybe he has adapted. But after watching the win last week over the Wolverines, barring that Paul Lapierre will not be able to throw properly, I believe the Ruff Ryders are a team of destiny and will win this match. This is the best game of the week in FlagPlus so if you can, come out and watch. You should! It is like watching an All Star game with high stakes! The winner plays for the TITLE!

C-men and Ryders,

Come out to play,

Who will win,

And play another day.

O.N.S. and GS,

Want to make their stand,

For the weekend after,

The Championship is at hand.

Can you feel it? Playoffs! Enjoy the rest for it is almost over. Feel free to email me your picks and Shepherd’s Pie recipes at [email protected] but until then, another week has been defused.